Here’s how to send a message to Big Pharma

[Donkees]

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

BY BERNIE SANDERS
Special to The Bee

Excerpt:

Currently the drug companies have 1,266 lobbyists on their payrolls in Washington, D.C., and 118 in Sacramento. They’ve made hundreds of millions in campaign contributions. Just this year, massive pharma lobbying efforts killed two bills in the Legislature that would have made modest steps toward drug-pricing transparency.

Fortunately, California has activist organizations such as the California Nurses Association, the California AARP and Consumer Watchdog that have taken a reform agenda directly to the voters through Prop. 61.

Prop. 61 is a common-sense reform. It ties the prices that the state of California pays for drugs for about 6 million patients, including Medi-Cal recipients and active and retired state employees, to the prices that the Department of Veteran Affairs pays. The department pays about 20 to 26 percent less than what most government agencies pay. Those are significant savings that will make drugs more affordable and accessible to more people.

The drug industry argues that only about 12 percent of Californians will benefit from Prop. 61. Not true. All taxpayers will save about $1 billion a year. One of the industry’s biggest lies about Prop. 61 was debunked – that it would it would increase what veterans pay for drugs.

The nation is watching California. When Prop. 61 passes, I predict the revolution against drug industry price-gouging will sweep across the country like a prairie fire.

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Bernie Sanders represents Vermont in the U.S. Senate, ran for the Democratic presidential nomination this year and will be appearing at rallies in Los Angeles and Sacramento on Monday. He can be contacted at [e-mail].

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article112612788.html